Colombia has reported more than 5,000 cases of pregnant women coming down with the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The number has increased by almost 60 percent over the past week. The total number of registered cases of the virus in Colombia stands at 31,555, the national health institute said in its epidemiology bulletin on Saturday. This number has also risen considerably since last week, showing no hopes for a decline in the near future.

Colombian authorities have urged women to avoid getting pregnant because the Zika virus has been associated with serious birth defects such as microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with smaller skulls and brains. Women have been urged to delay pregnancy for six to eight months, while pregnant women with Zika have been granted access to much-restricted abortion services, Reuters reported.Read article clicking HERE

Amid mounting global concerns over the Zika virus, Colombian doctors say they are seeing a hike in cases of a rare disorder, in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves. It was just recently that health officials announced that three people, who had died of Guillain-Barre, were also infected with Zika. Another six deaths are being investigated.

“We would have between 25 and 30 cases annually, in the entire department of North Santander. Now in the department, we have had 30 cases in the last month-and-a-half,” said Dr Jaime Lizarazo, a neurologist. “That is to say that the incidence has increased more or less ten times what is expected.” Most international experts are cautious about whether mosquito-borne Zika triggers Guillain-Barre because it can also be caused by other conditions.

In Venezuela, three people are said to have died of complications linked to Zika, with more than five-thousand suspected cases of the virus. Meanwhile, Brazil is launching a mass education campaign involving the military.

“The risk is in the entire state, actually the country and in all the tropical areas of the planet. So Zika represents an emergency for public health and it demands different actions that are already being taken,” explained Alexandre Chieppe, Under Secretary of Health for Rio de Janeiro State. “The idea is to join efforts to visit twice, 100 percent of buildings in the first three months of the year in Rio de Janeiro.” Alongside the suspicions about Zika and the Guillain-Barre disorder, Brazil’s health minister says he has no doubt that Zika is linked to a rare birth defect called microcephaly. This, despite what others see as a lack of scientific proof.

A mobile pediatric clinic has come to Flint, Michigan to help the city deal with its lead-tainted water crisis. The vehicle is part of the fleet belonging to the Children's Health Fund, a New York-based nonprofit.

Digital technology may have invaded the lives of millions of people around the world, but one old technology is still a major source of news, information and entertainment. That’s radio - and Saturday is world radio day, an opportunity to take a look at how it impacts the lives of millions of people. Al Jazeera's technology editor Tarek Bazley.